We are pleased to announce the New Baptist Covenant will gather together November 17-19, 2011. What began four years ago with a small group of committed Baptist leaders is accelerating into a thriving grassroots movement. In 2011, this movement will bring NBC II closer to you through some of the latest technology as we continue to live into Jesus’ Luke 4 mandate to “bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA will serve as NBCII’s anchor site, hosting worship services and breakout sessions that will be broadcast via satellite to various host cities across the nation. Host cities will provide additional programming and coordinate a day of local missions opportunities on November 19.

We hope you will join with us in celebrating this next phase of the New Baptist Covenant.

About seventy Baptists assembled at The Carter Center on March 12,
2008, to assess the hundreds of comments and suggestions that poured in
following the New Baptist Covenant assembly in Atlanta. Almost of all
of the participants represented conventions, associations,
universities, or other organizations. They divided into ten groups to
discuss issues related to evangelism and nine other subjects.

Over the ensuing weeks following the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, hundreds of suggestions and ideas for future action have been generated through feedback from participants. Additional ideas and suggestions were generated during the March 12 follow-up meeting of more than 70 Baptist leaders at the Carter Center.

A sampling of that feedback has been organized into broad categories and is presented here for consideration by individuals, churches and Baptist organizations that have participated in the New Baptist Covenant.

ATLANTA-Fifteen thousand participants in the New Baptist Covenant convocation arrived in Atlanta Jan. 30 seeking unity in Christ and departed Feb. 1 wondering where their quest will lead.

In the meantime, they demonstrated racial, theological and geographic harmony as they prayed, sang, listened to sermons and attended workshops focusing on ministry to the people Jesus called "the least of these" in society.

ATLANTA (ABP)-The only way for a broad group of Baptists to move toward their goal of unity is with a spirit of humility and forgiveness, former President Bill Clinton told participants of the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant Feb. 1.

"If we are going to form a covenant that can embrace the whole body of the Baptist [tradition], which every Christian can identify with and every good human being on earth can applaud, it is the spirit with which we go forward and our determination to offer specific things we can do as the children of God that will determine how it comes out in the end," Clinton said.

ATLANTA-With a closing challenge to love God and love others, former President Jimmy Carter capped the three-day Celebration of the New Baptist Covenant Feb. 1 in Atlanta, ending a day that focused on future unified action and developing response to immigration, hunger, health care and other social issues.

"I feel that this New Baptist Covenant assembly is based on … love God and love the person standing in front of you at any time," Carter said.

ATLANTA (ABP)-Many churchgoers know human trafficking and sexual exploitation are global issues. But more than 200,000 children in the United States have become "sex commodities" as well, Baptist social workers say.

Ellyn Waller and Brenda Troy led a discussion about exploitive sex at the New Baptist Covenant meeting Feb. 1 in Atlanta-a city with the nation's second-highest rate of human trafficking, they said.

ATLANTA-It's imperative that Baptists ask tough questions in order to spark reform of the U.S. criminal justice system, according to panelists engaging the criminal justice system breakout session Feb. 1 at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration.

Wendell Griffen, judge in the Arkansas Court of Appeals, said its time for Baptists to speak out about a broken system.

"Baptists should demand that the criminal justice system stop wrongful prosecutions," Griffen said. "We who believe that Jesus was tried and punished wrongly should demand transparency in the criminal justice system."